There were plenty famous faces merged with the masses on Tyneside on Sunday during the Great North Run.

And while they may have gone unnoticed to many of the 57,000 who were too busy pounding the streets and mentally counting down the miles, several were snapped - looking particularly fresh and energised - before they hit the road.

Certainly runners and spectators were spoiled for choice at the start line as a trio of familiar names launched the run.

There to wave the crowds off off from the podium was a World Cup winner in Durham's Mark Wood of the England cricket team plus two World Cup semi-finalists in the form of lionesses Steph Houghton and Jill Scott.

Then seen preparing for action were the likes of TV sports presenter Steve Rider; model Nell McAndrew who is an accomplished athlete as well as a regular at the event and singer, actress and former Pop Idol contestant Zoe Birkett.

Zoe, from County Durham, had taken to Twitter the night before the run to message her near 30,000 followers in a thank-you for help in surpassing her £5,000 fund-raising target for Make A Wish UK.

Jill Scott, Steph Houghton and Mark Wood get ready to start the race

She wrote: "In under an hour we just hit my big goal of £5,000", adding: "Now I better get to sleep and actually run this baby."

Among the sporting high achievers on the day was Sunderland's Aly Dixon, an Olympic marathoner dressing as Wonder Woman in a bid to set a Guinness World Record as the fastest superhero to run a half marathon while fund-raising in her role as ambassador for the local St Benedict's Hospice.

Others spotted by photographers on the day included Olympian and former British long jump record holder Chris Tomlinson and Simon Donald, the comedian and co-founder of Viz Magazine who was supporting the Graham Wylie Foundation.